A Whole New Adventure
by opus magnum
Summary: Before the journey on the Grand Line, the Strawhat pirates were strangers to each other in the present-day world. But there is a catch, someone is trying to prevent them. Will they learn to trust each other or will they think of saving their own skin?
1. Chapter 1

**One Piece: The Prequel**

Before the Strawhat Pirates journeyed the Grand Line, they were living boring routine lives as modern-day people. They live in this present world where money matters more than dreams and passion is overshadowed by practicality. In this world, it is more acceptable to give up when you're losing than to risk everything you have for a simple dream. If ever you succeed, you're called a genius; but if you fail, which is more probable, you're called crazy and absurd. Indeed, it is hard to keep up with single-tracked people who live for fame and fortune.

Our story starts with one seemingly crazy lad who goes by the name of Monkey D. Luffy.

_Kring. Krinngg. KRIIIIINNGG._ The constant nagging of the alarm clock welcomes Luffy to a new day of waiting on tables. His daily routine begins with breakfast in his rundown apartment. After a short shower, he changed into his work clothes and took a bus to the Portside Restaurant which, ironically, was situated on a roadside. He was already late when he got there.

He sneaked in through the back door. Slowly, he opened the door to find out that he'd already been found out.

"AHH!"

"Waiter! You're late again!" reminded a tall blonde guy who appeared to be the sous-chef. "Go serve table 8."

Reluctantly, he grabbed his pen and notepad and wore the fake smile he'd been ordered to plaster on his face when serving customers.

Seated on table 8 was an arrogant-looking guy with wild green hair. He appeared to be asleep. Luffy, who lacked manner whatsoever, hit him smack at the back of the neck and said, "May I take your order sir?"

"Yeah. I'd like one you, fired." He said this loudly enough to be heard by the other customers who seemed to be stirred.

"Would that be all?"

"Are you trained to idiots here? That is not a dish!"

"What about drinks?" Luffy just absentmindedly repeated what he says to every table.

"I'll have a burger and a beer." The customer seemed to calm down seeing that he was talking to an idiot.

"Thank you, sir. You will be served in a few minutes." As if a robot, he went to the kitchen and repeated table 8's orders.

"What? Beer this early in the morning? And what is a you fired?" wondered the cook who took the orders.

Ten minutes later, Luffy returned to table 8 bringing the order but only after sneakily taking a few fries and a bit from the burger patty. The latter was indiscreetly done on his way to the table.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" This time, the customer has completely lost his patience.

"I'm Luffy."

Irritated, this guy stood up to punch the waiter and missed.

"Hey, it's that motorcycle guy, Roronoa Zoro!" an onlooker remarked. "He seems really pissed."

Now, other customers have left their seats to see the brawl. Mothers covered the eyes of the curious children while some got cameras and phones to record the event. It was quite a ruckus.

"WHO DARES BRAWL IN THE RESTAURANT?!" Demanded an outraged sous-chef.

"Chef, it's that celebrity, Roronoa Zoro."

"HAH?! Who does he think he is?"

This, the motocross racer heard. He grabbed the thin waiter by the collar and demanded in an arrogant tone, "Ask yourself that! This wimp completely screwed my meal up!"

"I do not tolerate that behavior in this restaurant."

"Good. Now, replace my meal."

"Sir, I meant yours. If you have a problem with our service, you should've thought to call me before losing you temper."

A bunch of spectating teenager started chanting, "Fight. Fight. Fight."

"Let's take this outside." Suggested the chef.

"Yeah. I am just in the mood to beat up a cook."


	2. Chapter 2

Taking advantage of the chaos was an opportunistic orange-haired girl. She had entered this prestigious restaurant on a whim and quickly realized that she lacked the money to pay the bill. Used to situations like these, she quickly put her head to use. She had already finalized a brilliant scheme when this perfect opportunity came along thanks to that idiot waiter. She was ashamed to admit it but she was acquainted with this idiot waiter. He used to be a classmate of hers in high school. She was only amused by him because he reminded her of Jughead from the comics she used to "borrow" from the stores. It was a relief that he didn't go to college. _That's one idiot less from my life._ She thought as she made her way towards the exit, unnoticed.

Just to be sure, she decided to use an alley for her escape. Sooner or later they'd be looking for her so it was best that she avoid open places until the coast is clear. It was this certain alley that she picked where the cook and that customer were fighting. She decided to slip past them but as she neared the battleground, the cook's girl-radar went off. He suddenly stopped attacking and turned to face the panting runaway.

_Oh no! I got busted. _She thought. _Why else would he stare at me like that?_

She was just about to run as fast as her feet could carry when Luffy, who all this time was watching the fight and eating a burger, noticed her. "Nami? Is that you?" _Shoot! How can an idiot still remember me? And by name? _"Nami? Who's she? I'm not Nami." She stammered.

"That's a beautiful name. I could just hear the sound of the sea. I'm Sanji, by the way. Care to have dinner under the stars tonight?" Apparently, the cook's weakness was beautiful women.

"Oi! Love-cook! You're forgetting something!" Zoro reminded him eager to finish the fight.

"What did you call me? Dumbass?"

"Ahhh! It's Roronoa Zoro! Can I get your autograph?" Nami excitedly approached the green-haired celebrity and was in desperate need of a paper. She had nothing but a borrowed nautical book in her bag so she flipped a random page and presented it to her idol.

"This really isn't the time for signing of –- what the hell are we in that picture for?" Zoro remarked, quite shocked. It was a really old book, the pages seemed to be crisping with age characteristic of borrowing your books from a public library. The picture, that shocked such a laidback personality, was an old one. It was in sepia tone and the background seemed to be sails of a boat with a weird skull with a straw hat painted on it. "Oi, love cook and idiot waiter, you're here too!" Sanji, Luffy and Nami were now all huddled over the book. "That's weird. Maybe it's like, our ancestors." Nami wondered out loud.

"Look! I'm wearing the straw hat Uncle Shanks gave to me!" remarked Luffy to the confused group.

"There's another guy beside you Luffy, he has a really long nose." Sanji remarked pointing at one of the people in the picture.

"AH! That looks like Usopp!" Nami replied. "He's a friend of mine studying in MIT."

Zoro was silent. He had been thinking for a while now. _It seems so much like us. Those swords. What could be the meaning of this? Could this mean? …Kuina…_

"Hey, earth to dumbass celebrity." Sanji snapped Zoro out of reverie. "What do you think?"

"That's nothing but some freak's doing on Photoshop."

"So you're saying that someone created this picture, got the crazy idea to publish it and made the book look really old just to play a dumb trick. Out of pure coincidence, this beautiful lady meets us and just like that, without a purpose."

"Who knows?" Zoro replied lazily as he leaned against a wall to catch some z's.

"Are you dumb or are you dumb?" Sanji asked.

"It seems like we're pirates in the picture but there's no related text to it anywhere in this book." Nami announced, her tone betraying the intrigue she was feeling. _Pirates? That's crazy. I hated them ever since they killed Bellemere. This is crazy!_

The mood was momentarily ruined by the loud sound of Luffy's stomach. All this time, he'd been very quiet.

"Luffy? Any ideas?" Nami asked. She thought this was a hopeless question judging by the sheer idiocracy of the person she was addressing. "It seems like, you're captain."

"One Piece." Was all Luffy replied.


	3. Chapter 3

"One Piece?!" Zoro, Sanji and Nami asked in unison.

"Isn't that a bathing suit?" Sanji asked. Of course, women and cooking are his forte.

Zoro hit him. "Perverted love-cook," he muttered loud enough to be heard.

"Quit kidding around!" Nami ordered as she hit both of them in the head. Going back to business, she asked, "Luffy, what is this 'One Piece'?"

"It's my dream." Luffy said with conviction. This was the first time Sanji ever saw him that serious. _This guy must be something_, he thought. Luffy explained to them everything he knew about that legendary treasure that all pirates aim for.

Long time ago, the pirate era began when Gol D. Roger, the pirate king, before being executed spoke of that treasure. Whoever succeeds in getting this would become the next pirate king and have fame, fortune and power. However, this pirate era was abolished by the whole government a thousand years ago and the legend of the One Piece was erased from history. It must still be there, somewhere on the Grand Line.

"That's a load of crap!" Zoro voiced out. He appeared to not care but in truth, he was growing more curious by the minute.

"But there's no evidence of any pirate era nor is this Grand Line you keep talking about. If the earth's topography just happened to change within a thousand years, there's no record of it anywhere." Nami was also intrigued.

"You're right, Nami-chan. Besides, that still doesn't solve the mystery of that picture." Sanji rationalized. _What is all this about? _

"It's simple," Luffy began. The mood became tense. _This guy knows?_ was the thought that raced through the minds of everyone. "—that's us and we're pirates."

"WHAT THE HELL?!" they all exclaimed.

"He just stated the obvious." Nami sweatdropped.

"See, I'm the captain. Sanji, you must be the cook and Zoro must be a swordsman, see, he has all these swords."

"If we assumed that we were crewmates on the grand line searching for this One Piece. Then, why are we here?" Sanji thought out loud. "There must some clue."

"Luffy, you said this Grand Line was full of crazy phenomena?" Nami wondered. _Could it be?_

"Yes. And sea monsters too."

"Well, if for some crazy reason, we were really there. Then, we must've fallen in some other dimension and ended up here. And because our fates are intertwined, we ended up meeting each other and finding the first clue to our existence." Nami hypothesized. She knew it was a long shot but it just might be worth investigating.

"I'm not buying it." Zoro said. He was still skeptical about all this. After all, he was a celebrity and this kind of behavior of trick is to be expected from crazy fans. He made his way to the road. "when you have a better explanation, call me." He tossed them a calling card which Nami caught. If she weren't so intrigued by that picture she would have been overjoyed at receiving a calling card from Roronoa Zoro.

"Well, Luffy, we have a restaurant to run." With that, Sanji dragged Luffy into the kitchen. "Nami-chan, you're welcome to come back here anytime!"

"Hey! You're not thinking of leaving me to solve this, are you?!" They were off before she even finished her sentence. "AHH! I'm late for class!" With that she ran to the direction of the university.

That night, none of them were able to sleep well.

Zoro kept thinking about those swords. That white one especially caught his attention. It was exactly like the one he had, like the one Kuina used. He got out of bed, put on a robe and went up to his attic. He searched through dusty boxes until he finally found the one where he kept that sword. That night came back as fresh in his mind as if it happened yesterday. It was their 2001st fight. He was going to beat her. She starting talking about when she would grow up weaker but that morning, he couldn't believe what happened. Just like that, she was gone from this world. _Humans are fragile. _When his parents found out what happened, they quickly removed him from the dojo. It was unsafe for him to continue, they said. Despite all his cries, he was never able to hold another sword. He grew up rebellious but nonetheless, successful. His parents funded all his bad habits. They weren't there to scold him anyway. The memory of Kuina was erased through all those years of drinking and risking his life in the race track… until this morning.

Sanji couldn't sleep. He lay awake all night recalling the memories of the old geezer who taught him everything he knew. He remembered that his mentor talked about that place where all kinds of fish exist. It was called All Blue. If he did sail, that would be the only reason for it. But why would he? When there restaurant closed down, he transferred to the Portside restaurant where his talents were completely underestimated. Despite his experience, he had to work his way up from washing dishes to where he was now. Why would he throw all that hard work away just to find this sea that might not even exist?

In her room, Nami sat bewildered. _Pirates? _she wondered. She couldn't understand why she was in a picture with pirates. _After what they did?! They must've tricked me. _This was what she rationalized but there was a catch. She seemed really happy in their company, almost like she was enjoying her time. _Impossible!_ She wouldn't cast away Bellemere's memory just like that. There must be a reason. Because of Bellemere, she was alive and pursuing her dream to become a navigator. _And with that idiot as my captain?! I must be crazy. But then again, it's just a picture._ Still, she was intrigued. She had talked to Usopp about this. He came to same hypothesis as she did. It seemed to fit but it was crazy. Who in their right mind would believe that?

Usopp was intrigued by what Nami had shown him. _A pirate? I guess I'm really going to be great someday._ He thought as he striked a pose in front of the mirror and checked out his scrawny figure. _I bet I'll have 8000 followers. I'll be great._ He fooled around a bit but then, got serious. It wasn't a joke to him. His father was a pirate. He remembered seeing him leave. He was a great man. His father had left him in charge that's why he was studying to find a good-paying job to support both him and his mother. He wanted to be a sniper and work for the SWAT but he wasn't cut out for that job. Instead, he decided to use his head and study in MIT. But now, this picture came up. _What could it mean?_

Luffy was seated on the rooftop of the apartment building. He focused his attention to the sea. He grew up on an island in that sea. His best memories were those of Uncle Shanks. He called him uncle out of respect although he was a pirate. Shanks even gave away his arm to save his life. Until now, he still couldn't swim. It was because of that Devil fruit. He remembered that he got a strange ability from it but he just can't remember what. He clutched that straw hat that Shanks gave him. It was his treasure. Shortly after those pirates left, he sailed by himself. He got lost and a passing boat saved him and brought him to this island. They would've returned him to his town but they told him it didn't exist. Now, he met these people that were in the same picture with him.


End file.
